On November 14, 2007 our healthy and athletic son was diagnosed with advanced stage IV Burkit’s Lymphoma and Leukemia. This blog is a journal of his courageous journey as he battled this aggressive cancer. With the grace of God and the help of an incredible community, Tyler went into remission in August, 2009. He is now a strong and healthy student at The Ohio State University.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Do Something Today

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Before it comes and goes, like it has in prior years, why don't you do something. This one is easy. It is put together by AJ's dad and People Against Childhood Cancer.

President Obama gets 10,000 to 15,000 emails and letters every day.But, he only gets 1,000 faxes a day…..so….

One day…one Time….let’s double that number, triple that number….we can stand out, be heard, if we all do it together!

Fax the President and ask for a September ceremony in the Rose Garden honoring children during National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. All on ONE day. All together.

When – Today, September 3, 2009 – all day

What - A short note faxed to 202-456-2461. (send a free fax at http://www.faxzero.com/ or http://www.myfax.com/free)

SAMPLE TEMPLATE: Quickly customize the first line of the following request. Add your name and fax it off.

RE: Nation Childhood Cancer Awareness Rose Garden Ceremony Request

Dear President Obama:

As the {FATHER, MOTHER, GRANDPARENT, AUNT, UNCLE, BROTHER, SISTER, COUSIN, FRIEND, DOCTOR, NURSE, DENTIST, PASTOR, TEACHER, PRINCIPAL} of {A/SEVERAL} childhood cancer victim(S) I am writing to request that you hold a ceremony in the Rose Garden in honor of September National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Every year 12,500 children are diagnosed with cancer, and it is the leading cause of death by disease for children before age 20. 1 in 300 children are diagnosed with cancer before age 20 yet funding and awareness is woefully inadequate. This is not a “special interest group”. We are a large, diverse grassroots community passionate about providing all our children a stronger voice and assuring them equal access to research funding for Childhood Cancer. Our question on Increased Funding for Childhood Cancer was included in the Citizen’s Briefing Book presented to you by your Transition Team, question #5 in Health Care.

The awareness resulting from a ceremony would be a wonderful way to show your commitment to our future, our children. It would be an appropriate time to demonstrate that commitment by announcing full funding of the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act.

Thank you.

Warmest Regards,

YOUR NAME HERE

Go for it. Now. And never forget...

Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease in children between the ages of 1-19.

1 in 330 will be diagnosed with cancer by age 20.

More children die from cancer than from all other childhood diseases combined.

The incidence of childhood cancer has increased every year for the last 25 years.

Every school day, about 46 young people (2 classrooms full) are diagnosed with cancer in the US and that 7 will die each day.

At time of diagnosis in children, the cancer has already spread in 80% of the cases. That is compared to 20% in adults.

Young adults aged 15-22 have the lowest cancer survival rate of any age group.

Teenagers are extremely under represented in clinical trials for cancer, especially the 15-19 age group. They tend to excluded from both childhood and adult cancer studies, in both cases due to their age.

In the past 25 years there has only been one new drug treatment developed specifically for pediatric cancers. Since children can handle much more chemo than adults, most treatments are little more than mega doses of adult cancer chemotherapy treatments. The result of these high doses of chemo on children is a higher rate of secondary cancers.

For reasons not fully known, teenagers experience the highest rate of secondary cancers as a result of the high dose chemotherapy treatments.

A 5 year study was recently concluded at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, that concluded that teenage cancer survivorship is lower due to a lack of access to clinical trials.